on her new book, personal branding and favorite Instagram accounts to follow

I first met Aliza Licht aka DKNY PR Girl when I partnered with DKNY Fragrances for a fun project a few years ago. She was striking. As the SVP of Global Communications for Donna Karan, she had a coveted job, red hair to die for and was ahead of the curve when she embraced social media for the brand. As someone I admire, it was a pleasure to chat with her about her new book, Leave Your Mark, and get to know her a bit better.

If you were to start every day with an intention, what would it be?

To progress. I never want to stay stagnant and each day gives us all an opportunity to re-imagine.

Congratulations on your new book launch, 'Leave Your Mark!' What's your #1 piece of advice in there?

I am proud to say that I cooked that book with so many lessons, so it's hard to choose. If I had to though, it would be two bits: Be a generous, likeable leader and mind your personal brand.

What inspired you to write it?

I was actually approached by an editor at Grand Central Publishing who was following my work on Twitter and Tumblr. I didn't immediately say yes to the idea, because it was very daunting. She was really good at her job though and stayed on me for months. During that time I thought long and hard about what I would want to write about. For me, the book had to serve a purpose that I believed in. I had been doing a lot of mentoring on Twitter and I realized that what I really wanted to do was help people in their careers. Once it hit me that LEAVE YOUR MARK could be a virtual mentorship, it was easy for me to dive in.

What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received and who was it from?

Say thank you sincerely and often. My mother taught me that, along with a lot of other things.

You built an empire for DKNY as DKNY PR GIRL. How important is transparency online?

People expect honesty and transparency from brands. It's a core value of social media.

What staple beauty products can’t you live without and why?

It's a very scary, long list that I actually just documented for The New Potato. It's scary. Did I say scary?

Describe a day in the life.

In order:

Coffee. Twitter. Email. Getting kids ready. Drop off at school. Arrive at work at 9am or prior. Email hockey, Twitter, email hockey, Twitter, email hockey, meetings, email hockey, Twitter. Home: homework with kids. Quality (no electronic device) time with family. Bedtime routine. Email hockey. Twitter. Online shopping. Twitter.

Repeat.